“Here’s my body/ Here’s my scars…” – You Should Run, The Second Act’s opener, sees Missy Higgins name-checking her chart-topping debut single, Scars.
Missy Higgins was 21 when she released 2004’s The Sound Of White and has described this latest, sixth set as “a kind of sequel” to her debut, which dropped 20 years ago to the day.
As a newly divorced mother of two, Missy found songwriting therapeutic while mourning the loss of her imagined future. During Story For The Ages – the first song she tearfully composed for this album – Missy sings, “It was never meant to be like this… The book went up in flames.”
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“I’ll always love your daddy/ ‘Cause together we made you…” – A Complicated Truth, the record’s third single, was written in response to some tricky questions her five-year-old daughter Luna started posing from her car seat.
Craters, an upbeat stomper, brings some welcome levity: “I know by now becoming whole again just takes time.”
Then there’s the heart-rending Blue Velvet Dress, which transports us back to New Year’s Eve, 2021, when Missy performed at the Sydney Opera House forecourt against the backdrop of realising her marriage was unsalvageable.
Missy’s vulnerable, confessional songwriting is her superpower. Having established herself as an artist with longevity, Missy will be inducted into ARIA’s Hall Of Fame this year. From The Special Two to When 4 Became 3, Missy powers through The Second Act with dignity and grace.
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LABEL: EMI
RELEASE: OUT NOW
